Problems imaging planets

Until further notice, further notice, we are requesting FT users NOT TO IMAGE PLANETS. This is to prevent problems with the new CCD camera leaving "ghost" images that may spoil later users sessions.

In recent days we have seen a number of instances of "ghosting", where bright images of Saturn in particular are leaving traces on the CCD for around 30 minutes. This can lead to problems with images taken by later users (who may see a ghostly trace image of Saturn within their own image - very annoying!).

Whilst this problem is being investigated, we would like to request that NO PLANETS ARE IMAGED (Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune - Pluto is OK as it's not a planet any more, and is quite faint anyway!). Apologies to those of you tempted by Saturn in the night sky right now, but unfortunately a 2-metre telescope is really not suitable for planetary work without a specialist camera.

LCOGTN will eventually be installing a special Planetary Camera on all it's telescopes, but in the meantime please avoid planets until further notice.